Hello to all! This is my first day here and I am excited to share information with you all. I do have a quick question for anyone that could help. I am new to the tiki carving business/hobby. I bought a few palms but I have noticed that some seem noticably wet. Will they dry out, and if not, could this present a problem for my carving? Thank you!

Man I hear ya. I'm from the DC area too - pretty dry here Tiki wise, especially after the Honolulu restaurant closed in Alexandria last year. I heard a rumor - Trader Vics in Shirlington? I think they really meant Trader Joe's. If anyone can verify this - I'd like to know.

I'm a newbie here (as of today, thanks!), and I'm carving tiki's and making pretty good mai tai's. Where do Tiki-philes (?HUH!?) congregate in this boring town? (I've consulted Tiki rroad trip already - not much in there about Washington).

I've been thinking of putting together a junket to Atlanta for about 5-6 couples to head down to TV's for a weekend... but it's still too expensive. Any ideas would be appreciated.

GAP

Quote:

On 2006-01-18 18:11, JackLord wrote:Hey everyone,

I learned about this place from the link on Lotta Livin and have lurked for around a year.

I love Tiki, but reside in that near-Tikiless place known as the Nation's Capital. But my sister lives in LA, so I am frequently able to indulge my interests in Tiki, Googie, MCM, etc.

Tikigap & JackLord: I feel your pain. There's pretty much nowhere here in CT either, but you never stop looking. Hit every chinese resteraunt you can find...keep your eyes out. You might discover something no-one on here knows about!! It the thrill of the hunt! Also, you might want to goto the EVENTS section, and see if you can get some more DC TC'ers to meet & make some tiki trips. Thats what we've done up here in New England, and its gaining some momentum!

SandSea05: Check out the creating tiki threads. More stuff about carving than you can shake a stick at, but it seems that the general consensus is that carving palm sucks. It cracks when dry and is very pulpy to carve. SOme guys have moved to white pine and countless other woods. Just goto a Benzart thread and revel in what a master can do with the right tools. Live, learn, enjoy, and be sure to post your work!! We love seeing new carvers "come of age"!

Tikigap- You can travel an hour or so south to Lusby, MD and visit Vera's White Sands. The food should be approached cautiously but the drinks and decor are fantastic. There are trip reports and photos in another section.

In the alternate, both the Yenching Palace (Cleveland Park) and the Shanghai Garden (Van Ness) have Polynesian drink menus which will "get you there". The Yenching is fantastic; genuine art deco like a gangster movie. And some of the negotiations over the Cuban Missile Crisis were done there secretly.

But...it has been many years since the heyday of Trader Vics and the Diamond Head.

Thanks for the warm welcomes and the tips from JackLord for the DC Area. I do know of a Chinese Restaurant in McLean Virginia that makes a great Zombie. It's called 'Forbidden City', run by Henry Wu. I've been going there for way too many years now. When in the Northern Virginia/DC area, a trip to "FC" is highly recommended. Let me know when you go and I'll meet you there and introduce you!

BIG Aloha from the far-off frozen and completely tiki-less nordic wonderland of Norway!

I miss all things tiki and tropical and am glad and thankful to have this opportunity to connect with all the other fellow Polynesiacs out there.

I'm a Hawaiian who's been living and working up here in the Norwegian and European music business for the past 10 years now.

Pretty improbable I know but I work with a great collective of ace musicians in Hawaii known as Don Tiki. Together with these kings of EXOTICA I have also made my own CD which is called the Hawaii Project which even more improbably is about to receive a major release here in Norway and Europe respectively this summer or autumn.

I am therefore VERY curious to know how the current feeling is: What is everyone out there feeling with regard to the tiki scene. Does anyone else out there feel that it is in fact slowly growing and gaining ground and momentum?!

My friend Otto of the Tiki News tells me that there are steadily more and more tiki bars popping up all over. This can only be a good thing.
In these turbulent and overly hateful times we could sure use a great tropicalian escape to warmer, friendlier, Polynesian climes.

Well, I just wanted to get the impressions, insights and viewpoints of the vast Tiki Community.

Stu from Leeds in Yorkshire UK here... been a reader of this forum for a wee while and thought it was time to take the plunge. I suppose I am a Tiki newbie but I'm starting to make moves into the Mug market and the wife loves the idea of a Tiki bar in our living room, so yay! Been drawing Tiki's for about a year now and will stick some of my artwork up when I can get it scanned in... can't afford a scanner need to buy mucho bamboo.

Tikimon, you know the Kon-Tiki Museum's in Oslo, right? And you can legally buy Havana Club Rum & Absinthe, too! I'd say there's as much Tiki in Norway as there is in Indiana, so buck up and enjoy a real Dr. Funk with all the ingredients that're illegal in the US.
_________________Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., Th.D., D.F.S